DISHONESTY, BANE OF NIGERIA’S POLITICS
Whenever our seniors write to us expressing a strong opinion on a matter of urgent national importance, we consider it imperative to lend them space to ventilate same. This week, our Guest Writer is again that very good friend of the Column, retired Rear Admiral Suleiman Sa’idu ([email protected]), one-time Chief of Naval Staff and Military […]
Whenever our seniors write to us expressing a strong opinion on a matter of urgent national importance, we consider it imperative to lend them space to ventilate same. This week, our Guest Writer is again that very good friend of the Column, retired Rear Admiral Suleiman Sa’idu ([email protected]), one-time Chief of Naval Staff and Military Governor of Rivers State, who had written a few months ago on the vexatious issue of Almajiri. Today, the elder statesman argues that ‘Dishonesty’ is the bane in this country’s politics, advocating for a return to the Parliamentary System as a consequence of the current Restructuring Debate.
We have been dishonest in practically all we do in this nation; selfishness is now a part of us; we talk more of what we can get from the system instead of what we can contribute to make it more effective. We selfishly criticise ideas that contradict our personal views not because the ideas are not good but because they are contrary to our selfish beliefs. Constructive criticism with better alternatives was and still remains very much foreign to us. It is indeed surprising that, up till today, we have failed to identify the simple solution to the problems affecting us as a nation.
Could it be that our problem is the first of its kind in the world that so far defies solution? I do not think so. Almost every Nigerian within and outside the country knows that the solution lies with us all. We have all been hiding behind the thick cover of self-denial in admitting the knowledge of the problem, much less proffering the required solution. This rather unsolvable problem is contained in a single word, ‘honesty’, which every reasonable person tries to associate with, even if they fail at it.
The English dictionary simply defines the word ‘honesty’ as ‘Freedom from deceit, cheating, lying, stealing, etc’. This is a word that all parents drum into the ears and heads of their children and punish them if they find them wanting; but that which adults vehemently ignore. In my opinion, therefore, lack of honesty, or ‘dishonesty’ is the main obstacle to solving our national problems.
The lack of accepting the meaning of the word led us to commit actions that bred many illegal activities; and in trying to cover these actions, further atrocities were and are still being carried out leading to the current dangerous position our country finds itself in. “Honesty is the best policy” and “It pays to be honest” touts the English dictionary. But we are anything but.
When we commenced to play politics, the dreaded word also haunted us as political parties were formed not on ideologies but on personalities. While the initial parties were ethnic and parochial, the latter so-called parties were no better than personal associations based on a scramble for available resources; and we dishonestly made promises to the masses which we know we don’t intend to fulfil.
Even though the political parties at independence in 1960 have been known to be little more than ‘tribal associations’, we must admit that the maturity of those leaders helped to hold the country together. But now with a supposedly strong central government of an executive presidency, our woes have only been compounded.
We, the military, made a mistake; but an honest one. Jettisoning the parliamentary system for the presidential is such a costly mistake that we must try to retrace our way back. Had we continued with the old system, I believe, the politicians of the old republic would have modified their old system and educated the new breed on the art of governance from a system that had been and is still being operated in Britain successfully till today.
We had thought that a presidential system, with a strong centre, would solve our problem of ethnicity and religious squabbles. A strong centre has not done that; in fact, it only exacerbated our cleavages and actually succeeded in fuelling and feeding greed upon greed of and by the ruling elite. From 1979 when we began experimenting this presidential system to date, the ‘old breed’ has refused to learn the new system while the ‘new breed’ are busy criticising the operators of the system, with the country at almost a standstill, or even in reverse mode.
Today’s politicians are not honest, in fact they are dishonest. They know what’s wrong with us but, because it serves their pecuniary interests, they do not want to even discuss it. Therefore, in order to minimise this wanton stealing, we need to quickly retrace our path back to the old system. With hindsight, I now believe it was not the system of government that was wrong in the early days of the country’s independence.
In the parliamentary system, the election of the top executives is left to the relevant parties. All members of any of the executive arm of either Federal or Regional Governments, as the case may be (if the current six geopolitical zones are retained as ‘regions’) must win an election from his or her constituency. We have to change the status quo where some people who contested and lost elections will now turn around to become ministers.
I am sure some of the high ranking political party office holders and elected officials cannot identify or defend what their party manifesto is. Honesty should be key; and politicians should be bold enough to uphold truth and correcting the wrong. Majority of the developed countries of the world hardly have more than three political parties; why should a large, developing country like ours go for mushroom parties that all of us know cannot make the round? Two strong parties and independent candidature should solve our electoral mishaps.
As for those calling for a sovereign national conference, I would urge them not to put the clock too far back. Let us be honest with ourselves and work through the present houses of the National Assembly and pass through the necessary changes that will bring back the parliamentary system with necessary alignments and adjustments where practicable; and an honest referendum can even be conducted to facilitate the change and the usual legal interpretation of the present constitution be waived where necessary.
Let’s be honest with ourselves: we have been crying that the present constitution was thrust upon us by the military, and it is to be noted that almost all the political problems we have in this country have to do with the nomination or election to the executive and legislative offices. This has created massive fraud, violence and outright corruption. The officials so elected then proceed to fleece the country, and us, with abandon, as if believing that we gave them the mandate, by our votes, to go and steal.
Back before the handover to democratic rule in 1999, I had reflected on this matter which some media houses carried with the title ‘Going Forward or Backwards’. I had then warned that our successors in the military should have taken us back but, as usual, and as I said earlier on in this piece, we are fond of throwing away suggestions especially if they tend to go against our own parochial view.
Therefore, I am calling on all Nigerians of conscience – the time has come for us, senior citizens and all concerned, to unite with one voice and be honest and call for a return to the status quo ante. Let us minimise our corruption and the violence in our politics, let us return to local politics. Let each and everyone who wants to be anything in the future be first a Local Champion. We should return this nation to the parliamentary system where alliances matter.
I so submit.